Clinical Business Law Programs at Robson Hall
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Clinical Business Law Programs at Robson Hall JOHN POZIOS1 I. INTRODUCTION would like to start off by thanking everyone for being here. Today, I will talk about the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law I Clinic (Vickar Clinic), its offerings and the experiential pedagogy connected to the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law (Desautels Centre) at Robson Hall. The history of the Vickar Clinic at the University of Manitoba actually began decades ago. A local practitioner named Reeh Taylor, founding partner at Taylor McCaffrey LLP, supervised business law matters that Robson Hall students managed and generously provided pro bono legal advice under his license as a member of the Law Society of Manitoba.2 The Vickar Clinic is only part of my overall mandate here at our law school. Under the umbrella of the Desautels Centre, we deliver experiential offerings connected to research priorities. When I was hired, I had the opportunity to work with the dean and to speak directly with the donors about the Desautels Centre’s programs and objectives. These donors were Marcel A. Desautels, who donated 5 million dollars to establish the 1 John Pozios, JD, MBA, Director of both (i) the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, and (ii) the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic. Based on the transcript of a presentation that was delivered at the ACCLE conference on October 19, 2012 at Robson Hall, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba. 2 The Small Business Law Clinic, formally operating as Small Business Law Clinic (MB) Inc. under the aegis of the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba. 498 MANITOBA LAW JOURNAL|VOLUME 37 ISSUE 1 Desautels Centre, and Kerry Vickar, who started off supporting the Vickar Clinic with $25,000 per year and has now doubled that commitment to $50,000 annually. This put a lot of gas in the tank to do what the donors ultimately wanted us to do, which was to tie the theoretical business law curriculum to a practical offering that gives students skills they can carry with them through their articling year and beyond. Upon canvassing other clinical programs in North America, we decided that the Vickar Clinic would not actually offer legal advice. If we had a dedicated lawyer to supervise, the Law Society of Manitoba would likely allow the Vickar Clinic to give legal advice. Even though we don’t offer legal advice, however, a supervisor (who is a licensed practitioner in Manitoba) is assigned to each file. So, a supervising lawyer does oversee the file with a student, and the student offers clients legal information. I will speak about the Vickar Clinic in greater detail later on. But, initially, I want to discuss what we have done in terms of courses since I was first hired as the founding director of both the Desautels Centre and the Vickar Clinic in 2006. I’d like to introduce you to the curriculum we have developed around experiential pedagogy. II. THE DESAUTELS CENTRE The Desautels Centre’s mandate to address issues related to private enterprise and the law has two dimensions: research and teaching. On the latter, Robson Hall had two courses that we offered for decades that were quite successful overall. One was called “Solicitors’ Transactions”, and the other one was called “Business Planning and Finance”. Both courses were taught by sessional lecturers. Solicitors’ Transactions, in particular, featured small groups of students attending classes in the boardrooms of local law firms. While the host practitioners were all well-intentioned, it was hit or miss as to whether or not the students had a good experience. Very little was controlled by the Faculty of Law, other than assigning the students to the law firms. Clinical Business Law Programs at Robson Hall 499 Practitioners were given a general mandate to teach the students about solicitors’ work but there was no consistency in the curriculum. So, while you might learn a lot about, say, share and asset purchase transactions at one firm, at another firm you might spend a lot of time drafting wills. It was a great program for the years that it was offered, but I had the opportunity to sit down with the dean and the donors to consider retooling the curriculum from the ground-up. As a result of these discussions, we combined the essence of those two courses and created one year-long course called “Business Transactions: the Art of the Deal” (Art of the Deal). I will talk about the content of this course in some detail in a minute. Additionally, to the extent that moot competitions were offered as an experiential learning option for students to participate in, it was noted that there was nothing akin to the annual Corporate/Securities Law Moot offered by Davies3. So, for the last 4 years, the Desautels Centre has sponsored a Robson Hall team co-coached by Professor Darcy MacPherson and me.4 Four students are chosen to represent our law school at the competition which takes place in Toronto the first week of March every year. The teams are divided into two pairs. This competition is unique because each pair argues once on behalf of the appellant and once on behalf of the respondent. It provides the students with an excellent window into appellate advocacy in a business law context. From there, I began looking at the offerings of the Vickar Clinic itself: essentially a volunteer clinic for no course credit. After completing a review of North American law schools, I found a number of interesting models for business law clinical internships in the United States which I will return to in a moment. 3 Annual Corporate/Securities Law Moot Court Competition hosted by Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP in Toronto. 4 Moot competitions that are approved by Faculty Council at Robson Hall entitle student participants to 3 course credits. 500 MANITOBA LAW JOURNAL|VOLUME 37 ISSUE 1 From that research, I created two courses for three credit hours each: (i) the Business Law Clinical Internship, and (ii) the Corporate Counsel Clinical Internship. The latter is possibly the first of its kind in Canada (although I am prepared to be corrected).5 A. Art of the Deal The Art of the Deal is a full-year capstone course offered exclusively to third year law students; it is a faculty-led course where, in 26 weeks, I deliver 19 lectures on legal issues related to various transactions, organize three negotiation exercises, and spend four classes on non-law, yet relevant, business subjects such as financial accounting, valuation, corporate finance, and succession planning. The point is to demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of corporate commercial practise, and to talk to the students about delivering value as an advisor when you get out into the field. One must understand that you don’t practice law in a vacuum and you have to appreciate the context within which professional services are provided. The three negotiation exercises are hosted at local law firms and supervised by experienced counsel. The exercises are usually based on a fact scenario dealing with a shareholder agreement, a share or an asset agreement purchase agreement, and a venture capital term sheet negotiation. The VC term sheet scenario is a somewhat quasi-legal negotiation that gives the students a taste of what a venture capital financing might look like. Additionally, I have created a simulated clinical offering operated in conjunction with the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship here at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business (Asper School). Art of the Deal students act as “counsel” to students enrolled in the New Venture Analysis and 5 These courses are more properly called externships since the students are placed outside the law school environment at private firms or legal departments within an enterprise. According to my discussions with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, I do not believe any other faculty of law in Canada assigns students to “in-house” placements in connection with a course offering at the time of writing. Clinical Business Law Programs at Robson Hall 501 Business Venture Analysis courses at the Asper School. The Asper School students, acting in groups of four or more, are usually working on a business plan for a start-up. They are generally trying to commercialize some new technology that they sometimes get from the technology transfer office here at the University of Manitoba, or their own business ideas. I should note that often these teams go on to compete and win large prizes, including one $20,000 top prize that I remember was won recently.6 Often, what I try to do (and what the business school has allowed me to do), is work with their students so they realize that, if these were real businesses, they would have to think about the rules that they were running their business by, and that they would generally need some form of business organization governed by the type of rules found in a partnership or shareholder agreement. What we have done in the past, as part of the assignment in both faculties, is to have the business students work with the law students to draft a partnership agreement for their competition team. Students from the Art of the Deal act as “counsel” to their business student “clients” and, while not giving legal advice (this is for educational purposes only), often speak glowingly about this simulated exercise. In their end-of-year journals, this exercise is often identified as one of the most interesting things that the students get to do. They register for the course not knowing what to expect; often the business students think they are just going through the paces.